This project has been successfully funded with $51,165 (128%)

"Love is like war, easy to begin but very hard to stop". H. L. Mencken

"Shwayit Souwar" (A Few Images) is Tania Saleh's 4th album. It is a romantic trip describing a Lebanese Arab woman’s intimate story riding through this insane world. The album is a musical search for love in the middle of hatred, blood and infinite divisions. It raises questions about the meaning of life, the inequality between sexes and the fragility of our existence on this planet.

"Arab men might be at war but Arab women are at peace. A woman in this part of the world is hard working, full of hope and positive energy. Rain or shine, she has always been there for her father, brother, husband and son, spreading her endless love and showing them where the beauty is, hoping they would listen. This album is dedicated to her". Tania Saleh

This album comes with a totally new sound, unlike anything Tania Saleh has done before. She is grounded in her roots, she idealizes the Arabic melodies and rhythms and marries them to international vibes of classical, jazz and Bossa Nova grooves because, when it comes to music, she believes in a borderless planet. This work offers a new lyrical and musical dimension, fresh melodic elements with long instrumental parts and vocal scats redefining Tania's influence on the Arabic music of our modern times.

Since 1997, Tania has released 2 studio albums and one live album and wrote songs for films like Nadine Labaki's "Where Do We Go Now?" and "Caramel".

In this album, Tania’s new challenge is to prove her songwriting abilities both in words and music. She never ceases to immerse herself in new experiments to constantly rediscover her self. She has written most of the songs on the album but has also collaborated again with Issam Hajali (who offered his genius on 3 songs and helped in the guitar arrangements).

Thanks to Gisele Khoury and the Samir Kassir Foundation's support, Tania has performed the songs live at the Beirut Spring Festival in May 2013 but was waiting for the proper funding to record them in the studio. She caught the attention of Norwegian producer Erik Hillestad-KKV (http://www.kkv.no/en/english1/). Among many others, he has released many of Rim Banna, Nai Barghouti, Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat’s albums. Thanks to an international distribution in Europe, the USA and the Middle East, the albums gave those artists a platform for their art in the world. After watching Tania's songs performed live at the BSF festival, Hillestad decided to co-produce her new album which gave her the possibility to finally record all the songs between Notta Studio, Beirut, Lebanon and Studio Nordraak, Oslo, Norway.

"Shwayit Souwar" reveals the talent of some of the best musicians based in Lebanon, to name a few: Ali Al Madbouh, Adel Minkara, Lety Al Naggar, Chris Michael, Ibrahim Jaber, Walid Nasser, Khaled Omran, as well as Lebanese composers Issam Hajali, Charbel Rouhana and Claude Chalhoub who appeared as very precious special guests on the album. There were also outstanding special guest appearances by Norwegian artists Kjetil Bjerkestrand (composer and arranger for artists like Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ute Lemper), Mathias Eick (jazz musician who has collaborated with Manu Katché, Chick Corea and Pat Metheny) and musicians from the Norwegian Radio String Orchestra who played beautiful string arrangements written by Edouard Torikian.

As always, Tania tries to differentiate her style by a unique visual image that illustrates her musical statement. In this album, she has revealed herself as an illustrator while working on the cover design with the most talented art directors, fashion designers and photographers of the region.

Although KKV has co-produced Tania's album and has given her the opportunity to work with the best Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian and Norwegian musicians, there is still a lot of work to be done for the release of the album. Tania has committed to release the album in Lebanon herself. For that she needs YOUR support.

What We Need & What You Get:

Zoomaal is helping Tania reach the goal of 40,000$ in 2 months that will be spent on:

-CD cover printing

-illustrated postcards printing

-at least one music video

-launch event and launch concert

-album marketing campaign

-album website

-rewards and shipment fees to fundraisers

What YOU get in return is a reward from Tania based on the contribution amount.

The Impact

Tania Saleh has always been known for depicting the reality of the Arab world with her words and music: sectarianism, corruption, depression, the search for truth, for identity, the lack of unity and equality... She has always believed that all Arab countries are linked by one language both verbally and musically. She offers her songs to this tormented Arab world both as a spiritual support and as a mirror that portrays its inner true desires for peace, love, freedom and equality.

While many forces around us try to eliminate our heritage, ridicule our culture and annihilate our identity, the objectives of Tania's third studio album "Shwayit Souwar" is to reinforce all of the above and keep our Arabic music alive and in constant evolution. Although at some point in the future of humanity, humans will discover the insignificance of countries and borders when we all share the same biology no matter where we are on the world map.

Tania, like a few other independent artists from the region, is on a noble mission to make a fresh statement with her original words, eclectic music and unique illustrations and travel with it to the world to portray a positive image of who we really are.

After all, she believes that this is her duty as long as she may live.

Other Ways You Can Help

Some people just can't contribute, but that doesn't mean they can't help. Please get the word out and make some noise about this campaign. Please use the Zoomaal platform and share tools to spread the word! And that's all there is to it.

Tania Saleh is a Lebanese singer/songwriter/visual artist born on March 11, 1969. She has been paving her own path in the independent Arabic musical scene since 1990. Her voice is a soft mix between the traditional Arabic music she was…